Pending Projects

1. Project Overview

My team's project focuses on a Peltier-cooled diffusion cloud chamber intended to function as an educational teaching tool. Rather than serving only as a device demonstration, the chamber is meant to create a classroom experience in which students can directly observe evidence of ionizing radiation and connect that observation to a physical reality.

My team and I chose this direction because particle physics can feel unintuitive, uninteresting, and difficult to access when students are asked to imagine a phenomenon they cannot normally sense; coupled with our personal interest in the discipline. Making radiation tracks visible to the human eye offers a more concrete way to introduce the topic and gives students a reason to observe, question, and discuss what they are seeing. The overall hope is that it inspires students to explore the fascinating world of particle physics further.

2. Research & Problem Framing

Problem Statement

This project addresses a common issue regarding certain academia, being the lack of a drawing and educationally valuable way to help students visualize non-intuitive topics. This can range from a topic within anthropology, such as the massive scale of city population to that of our focus, particle physics. Our project will visualize the passage of ionizing radiation in the atmosphere, here, on Brandeis's campus. The goal is to develop a device, electron cloud chamber, that makes an invisible phenomenon visible. We hope to make this topic more accessible by presenting it in a form that supports classroom teaching, discussion, and conceptual understanding.

Background Framing

Our approach for the project is framed around the diffusion cloud chamber, rather than around detection alone. The chamber works by creating a supersaturated alcohol vapor to flood the enclosed atmosphere. Within the chamber will be a great temperature differential between the top and surface of the base, the base being around -30 celcius. That temperature gradient creates the sensitive region where particle tracks become visible. In general, the idea is about visualization, but for those interested in the physical phenomena; the trails are visible because a charged particle passes through a supersaturated alcohol vapor in the cloud chamber and ionizes the gas along its path. The vapor then condenses onto those ions, forming tiny droplets. Those droplets line up where the particle traveled, so you can see a visible trail of exactly that particle's path. For the basic educational demonstration, natural background radiation should be enough to create visible trails, meaning nothing special needs to be placed inside the chamber for the core effect to appear. However, I have included an image below that represents what happens when something of greater emission is placed inside the chamber (an alpha emitter).

Figure 1.2 (Click the image to view fullscreen)

Source: Cloudylabs, "The first particles detectors"

The emphasis is on the chamber as an educational system. The value of the demonstration comes from allowing students to see direct visual proof that atmospheric radiation exists, notice that different particle tracks may appear different, and begin asking what is visible, what can be inferred, and what still cannot be directly seen. This can give rise to questions regarding how we can alter these paths, how to induce a longer path, as well as, the limitations of the device. That is how we plan to balance educational value with accessibility and usability for anyone to participate in understanding.

User / Customer Profile

• The primary users are any individuals who are struggling to understanding something that feels abstract and make it concrete. Specifically aimed towards students and possibly researchers. The idea is that they can come to conclusions and form hypotheses about this invisible concept independently using the device.
• The secondary users are physics' majors. Although, they could benefit from the demonstration, this is mainly a focus on helping those who cannot visualize the invisible in anyway; therefore a physics major studying these concepts might already have a good idea of the abstract in a "concrete" form via mathematics. However, as mentioned the device can still benefit these individuals as they too, cannot often see this phenomena with the human eye. If they could, then they would be a superhero.
• The educational goal is to help students build interest, ask questions, and connect what they observe as physical reality to the abstract.
• The chamber will teach students to make observations of the now visible particles and convert those observations into understanding, rather than overwhelm the users with engineering details and the complex underlying quantum mechanics. As mentioned, the idea is to help individuals understanding the power of visualization when understanding an abstract concept.

3. Problem Definition & Brainstorming

Thematic Design Tensions and Themes

• One major challenge is creating interest in something that students cannot normally sense and connecting this topic to the idea of accessibility for all users.
• The project has to balance functionality, portability, consistency, aesthetics, and educational value.
• Another hurdle is the balance between system autonomy and the amount of interaction users should have. Ideally, we want the users focus to be on the chamber not the controls. Our plan is to build the device with a simple plug and play interface.
• The chamber also raises the notion of showing versus explaining. Although, we want to show the user this phenomena, they will not always understand what the importance is. As the builders we will add an interface that briefly introduces the user to the concepts we hope to convey.
• Mathematics and physical law both need to be incorporated in a way that feels meaningful rather than forced onto the users; as we assume they are not familiar with the complexities of the topics. In general, we can approach this from a fabrication stand point alone with zero quantitative analysis. On the flip side we can also calculate the amount of voltage necessary, coupled with the efficiency of the heat sink, without forgetting the impact of density of saturation...and very quickly we lose sight of our original intent. This fine line between over-explaining and educational substance will have to be addressed carefully and presented with the user in mind being someone not currently familiar with the concepts.

Insight Statements about Design

• Students struggle to engage with ionizing radiation because it is normally invisible and difficult to connect to everyday experience.
• A successful classroom cloud chamber must do more than function physically; it must also balance cooling performance with portability, consistency, and educational clarity.
• Too much automation may reduce learning, while too much user control may reduce reliability.
• The educational power of the chamber comes not only from showing tracks, but from helping students ask better questions about what those tracks mean.
• The chamber is strong as a teaching tool as it connects direct visual experience to broader academic clarity.

Focused Questions

• How can we make ionizing radiation visible in a way that feels concrete and captivating to students?
• How might we design a cloud chamber that is compact and portable without sacrificing track visibility and consistency? How does design effect who can use it? Why?
• How might we balance automation with user interaction so the system is reliable but still educational?
• How might we use the chamber not just to show tracks, but to prompt deeper discussion of physics concepts and limitations? How do we move students past the "Whoa! Cool" stage, into forming hypotheses?

Selected Design Direction

The selected direction is a Peltier-cooled diffusion cloud chamber designed as an educational teaching tool. I chose this approach because it supports the core goal of making invisible radiation visible, while also allowing the project to be built around usability, safety explanation, and conceptual accessibility rather than engineering spectacle alone. At this stage, this should be read as the current direction rather than as a fully finalized design.

Figure 1.2 (Click the image to view fullscreen)

4. Storyboard

Our story begins with a classroom problem: a physics professor wants to introduce students to ionizing radiation, but the concept is difficult to make concrete because students cannot directly sense it.

1. The cloud chamber , pictured in Figure 1.3, then acts as the bridge between that invisible idea and the perceivable physical world, allowing the lesson to begin with observation rather than abstraction alone.
2. The next step is explaining that the device is a diffusion chamber, which creates a supersaturated vapor by keeping the bottom very cold while the top remains warmer. It's crucial to begin the explanation post demonstration as we are focused on the connection not this specific phenomena necessarily.
3. Once the chamber reaches that sensitive state and proper temperature differential, charged particles passing through the region leave visible condensation tracks, which the user will now see.
4. At that point, students will begin asking questions about what they are seeing, why some tracks may appear different, and what can actually be concluded from the demonstration. And the most common, "is this safe?" Of course, the particles are there whether we visualize them or not, that is our whole point! Success!
5. The instructor can then use the chamber to connect those visible trails to larger physics concepts instead of treating the demonstration as spectacle alone.
6. The chamber's components can also become part of the explanation, since the build itself helps show how the conditions for visibility are created and give a brief introduction to circuitry.
7. From there, the demonstration can lead into broader real-world or scientific visualizations and show that the classroom experience connects outward to larger contexts.
8. The instructor also has an opportunity to address safety and misconceptions surrounding radiation, electricity, and the chamber's hot and cold components.
9. The experience ultimately opens the door to deeper learning, including equations, interpretation, and broader particle physics ideas that grow out of what students have already observed.



Figure 1.3 (Click the image to view fullscreen)

Source: RS DesignSpark, "Peltier Cooled Cloud Chamber Part 2"

10. Finally, the last step the student will take is that when they tell all their classmates how incredible ionizing radiation can look! On a more serious note, the user can now express something that was once invisible, using concrete observations. Our hopes are that this promotes a welcoming introduction to less intuitive concepts

5. Current Design Direction

Our design direction is a Peltier-cooled diffusion cloud chamber. A similar approach has been taken using dry ice, however that is not user friendly. In the present system logic, stacked Peltier modules create the cold side needed for the chamber, an aluminum plate is part of the cold-side design, and the hot side must be actively cooled with a heat sink and CPU fan. A buck converter has also been discussed as one option for setting the Peltier voltage and keeping it stable, however, proved unnecessary. Overall, the design is trying to balance cooling performance, a stable atmosphere, and classroom usability.

The list below reflects the current documented direction rather than a locked final bill of materials. In general, the design will remain consistent but some parts may be removed or changed:

6. Closing Reflection

The larger goal of this project is to make an abstract concept feel more concrete. Particle physics can be difficult to understand when students are asked to imagine a phenomenon they cannot normally see, so the cloud chamber gives them a more direct way to connect observation to the underlying physics. By making ionizing radiation visible in a classroom setting, the project can help turn a difficult topic into something more accessible, discussable, and real.